Promises Kept: Essays from my 2003 Campaign
Leveling UP
The fight for Basic Aid is critical to Palo Alto Unified Schools. Earlier this year proposals dealing with the budget crisis in Sacramento threatened two core values of Palo Alto's commitment to education. Most importantly, a loss of Basic Aid funding of schools would cause a devastating cutback of at least 25% in the Palo Alto School District budget. Quality schools are a bedrock of our community. It is the reason many of us live in and enjoy Palo Alto, Stanford, Portola Valley and Los Altos Hills. Quality education creates opportunities for children, builds a strong community, supports the high technology foundation of Silicon Valley, and even supports a premium paid for housing inside the school district boundaries.
Secondly, the budget proposal challenged the right of a community to invest more in education than the state average. The Basic Aid program lets local school districts spend more of their own local property tax dollars on education. Voters here have repeatedly shown their strong support for schools, most recently with the resounding victory of Measure B. What Sacramento would have done is "recapture" local tax dollars and merge them into the black hole of the state's general fund.
This is the worst form of "leveling down" of education. The proposal did not guarantee a single dollar more toward the education of others in the state. Without improving the quality of education of California students it would have caused massive cuts in the 60 state districts willing and able to fund education at a higher level. Rather than invest in education above the average deemed acceptable by Sacramento, Palo Alto Unified would need to cut back to this too low level. This is not shared sacrifice, but a fundamentally wrong approach to both education and the state budget.
Leveling up is a broader principle than just Basic Aid. The Board of Education will be facing many challenges to the academic and extracurricular programs offered in the district. My number one priority as a School Board member is to provide a quality education for all students in our district. Creative solutions will come from many avenues if we highlight what we do best and maintain steadfast to the commitment of leveling up and demanding this goal for ourselves.
All of us, School Board, staff, parents, and community, have a responsibility. We convened on January 31, 2003 in a local coffee house to fight the attack on Basic Aid and rally for maintaining the best, and we survived round one. The need to keep focused on this issue, and the broader issue of leveling up, is ongoing. When we face difficult tradeoffs, we must work together highlighting what operates well, understanding there may be shared sacrifice, and keep working to improve education for all.
- Camille Townsend